Originally appears in the Fall 2010 issue

What do you remember from your own school days? Rows of desks, stacks of worksheets, lunch trays piled with tater tots? The well-worn grass on the playground and a line of rumbling yellow school buses at the end of the day?

As you know, many of these classic memories are changing with the times. Instead of seated at desks to work on math problems, students might be walking the halls with clipboards, collecting and analyzing data about energy usage. In front of the school, perhaps a “No Idling” sign reminds bus drivers and parents to keep the air clean by turning off their engines, while dozens of bikes await their riders in a bicycle rack nearby. You might spot student-drawn posters above the recycling area to help everyone sort paper, bottles, and cans into the appropriate bins. Or, in the cafeteria, you might find a salad bar stocked with greens, tomatoes, and cucumbers from the school’s garden. Out on the grounds, grass and asphalt may have disappeared, replaced by native plants that attract birds and butterflies and provide a place for hands-on science lessons about adaptations, food webs, and other key concepts.

These scenes are becoming more and more common as schools make efforts to “go green.” And with the green schools movement gathering momentum, it is poised to make a big impact—or rather, a greatly reduced impact! Here’s why:

  • First, schools generally have large environmental footprints. For example, energy and water bills can run to hundreds of thousands of dollars per year, and the line of parents dropping off and picking up children each day can stretch on for blocks. When schools make changes—even small ones—to benefit the environment, the resource savings can add up quickly.
  • At the same time, the greening process becomes an engaging, authentic lesson for students—and the resulting knowledge ripples outward in all directions. They take what they learn home to their families and out into their community, and they carry the ideas with them into their future lives.

The Green Schools Movement

This growing movement is a global one. Green schools programs are popping up around the world, providing schools with valuable resources and networks to inspire and assist them in achieving their environmental goals. Some of these programs are small and regionally specific; others are large with a broad reach. Among the largest, the international Eco-Schools program currently works in 50 countries and involves 37,000 schools, 9.5 million students, and 600,000 teachers. (See the list at the end of this article to find out which green schools programs are established your area.)

The key feature uniting the green schools movement is a holistic approach. Schools seeking to become “green” can take action in three main areas:

  1. The school building
  2. The school grounds
  3. The curriculum

The benefits of this three-pronged approach are another common element among green schools programs. These benefits include:

Big-picture view. Schools consider the student experience from a variety of angles and whittle down their environmental footprint from several sides at once. For example, a school might seek to reduce water consumption by installing low-flow fixtures in the building, capturing storm water runoff for use on the grounds, and exploring these and other water-conservation methods as part of students’ study of the water cycle in the science curriculum.

Flexible implementation strategies. Schools map their own routes using a self-directed, step-by-step approach. For example, the Eco-Schools program is set up around a series of seven steps through which schools progress, such as assembling an “Eco-Action Team,” conducting an environmental audit, and developing an action plan. Schools use the steps to plot a course that addresses the challenges and opportunities unique to their situation—the features of their own building, grounds, and curriculum that lend themselves to particular actions.

Beneficial links between different elements. Whether a school decides to focus on energy conservation, transportation impacts, waste reduction, or any number of other “pathways” through the program, progress tends to be interconnected and mutually reinforcing. For instance:

  • The school grounds become an outdoor classroom for lessons in a variety of disciplines, from science and math to language and visual arts.
  • The school building becomes a hands-on learning lab as, for example, students learn to monitor energy and water usage and calculate savings.
  • Increased numbers of students walking or biking to school benefit both the transportation footprint and students’ health, concentration, and overall academic performance.
  • Improvements to the school lunch (such as more local foods) benefit student health and performance while cutting down on transportation impacts and waste.

Greening in Action: Case Studies

Schools are using the three-pronged framework in innovative ways to accomplish a variety of exciting things. Here are some examples from schools participating in Eco-Schools USA, the branch of the Eco-Schools program in the United States, which is hosted by National Wildlife Federation.

  • Greening the School Building

Energy conservation at Lanier Middle School in Fairfax, Virginia. A nearly-new school building wasn’t performing as efficiently as it could be. That’s what this school’s Eco-Action team found when they completed an energy audit. The team, composed of students, teachers, and parents, used a comprehensive checklist to evaluate the energy efficiency of their facility. Their most illuminating discovery was that the light intensity in the classrooms actually exceeded suggested levels—the lights were too bright! The team proposed a plan of action: disable one of the four fluorescent bulbs in each ceiling fixture in each classroom. This strategy would reduce the light output to an appropriate level and, by their calculations, reduce the school’s overall energy use by around 15 percent. With an annual energy bill of over $176,000, this step alone will save the school more than $26,000 a year. These eye-opening figures made an impression on students, who gained a variety of skills as they learned to use monitoring equipment to conduct the audit, made calculations, and weighed a variety of potential action plans.

Waste reduction at United High School in Armagh, Pennsylvania. For this rural school in the heart of coal country, environmental initiatives can be tied to fears of family members losing their livelihood. So launching a green schools program required a delicate touch. The school’s first eco-endeavor was to implement a school-wide recycling program. Success came through a partnership with the company that runs the school buses. It agreed to transport the collected materials to the county recycling facility. The school now hopes to become a recycling drop-off site for their county, which currently lacks pick-up services. They plan to dedicate space for this use in upcoming building renovations. To further “trim their waste-line,” they have begun collecting food waste in the school cafeteria; vocational agriculture students compost the organic material and use it the school greenhouse. And the environmental studies class has made re-use fun and fashionable with an annual “Trashin’ Fashion Show,” for which students design wildly creative outfits using discarded materials.

  • Greening the School Grounds

Rooftop gardening at PS41 in New York City. Distressed by the lack of opportunities for children to interact with nature in the city, parent Vicki Sando started a container garden outside her son’s school several years ago. This modest endeavor has now blossomed into an ambitious campaign for a green roof atop the school building. The school envisions the 10,000-square-foot Greenroof Environmental Literacy Laboratory (GELL) as a green refuge in the heart of the city that will offer wildlife habitat, opportunities for students to experience food production and hands-on learning about different types of ecosystems, and mitigation of environmental impacts such as storm water runoff and the urban heat-island effect.

Water conservation at Savannah Country Day Lower School in Savannah, Georgia. One of many green innovations at the school’s newly constructed building is a 2,000-gallon water cistern that collects 50 percent of the rainwater that falls on the school’s roof. Drawing water from the underground cistern, students use it to fill a pond for fish and turtles, to clean out cages in the animal-care facility, and to water the school’s gardens. A “brown thumb garden,” which features cactuses and other plantings with minimal water needs, provides a real-life lesson in water conservation. Students build their math skills by calculating how many gallons of water are in the cistern at different times throughout the year. To determine how much water is available for use, they measure the height and width of the cistern and then use a 20-foot-long yardstick to gauge the water level.

  • Greening the Curriculum

Education for Sustainability at Boston Latin School in Boston, Massachusetts. The oldest school in the United States is working at the cutting edge of sustainability education. Their ambitions for a greener school building grew out of efforts to promote awareness and action around climate change. Now they’re taking it to a higher level—literally! The largest of many current projects is an extensive learning lab on the school’s roof. Students worked with architects who offered a series of pro bono design charrettes, gaining valuable skills as they helped to envision how the space could be used. The roof will be set up for teaching and hands-on data monitoring, as well as striving to improve the building’s carbon footprint. The design incorporates all of the following rooftop elements:

  • Vegetated areas will replicate local microclimates for study of flora and fauna.
  • Outdoor classroom areas and a contemplative garden will host interdisciplinary lessons.
  • Streaming data sets and webcams will provide opportunities for monitoring of carbon exchange, rain acidity, and other indicators.
  • Infrastructure for solar and wind power generation will be included.
  • A garden and greenhouse will grow food for the school cafeteria and surrounding community.

Meanwhile, the school’s Youth Climate Action Network (Youth CAN) is expanding its reach well beyond the school’s boundaries. Founded in 2007, the network now includes climate action clubs in 18 schools throughout the region. Youth CAN recently held its 4th annual Climate Summit for 7th – 12th grade students and teachers from over 50 schools. They envision a larger green-roof coalition throughout the city of Boston. And they are also advocating for—and working to create—an education-for-sustainability curriculum for use by all schools in the state of Massachusetts.

Getting Started with Green Schools

Ready to initiate or expand a school-greening campaign? No matter what your means and the current state of your school building and grounds, opportunities abound. The first step is to investigate green schools programs in your area and choose one (or more) that can help you get underway. One of the major benefits of positioning your efforts under the umbrella of an existing green schools program is the opportunity to share information and learn from others’ experiences.

To get you started, here are a few tips from participants in the Eco-Schools USA program.

  • Start Small. Robert Penrose from United High School encourages schools new to the greening process to start small, with achievable goals. “Generate momentum by tackling easy projects first and demonstrating success,” he says. “If you try to do something huge right away, you’ll run into roadblocks and get derailed.” Instead, he suggests, “Get a few people involved and excited, show the benefits of what you are doing, and then build the program from there.”
  • Let Students Lead. For maximum impact, it’s essential for students to be actively involved in assessing current performance and devising plans of action, as well as informing classmates about progress and communicating success to the wider community. Penrose has found that the school board is eager to hear proposals from students. He explains that teachers can talk all they want and nothing happens, “but when the students take up a cause, then everybody’s ready to listen.”

William Eswine, a science teacher at Savannah Country Day School, feels that it’s not enough for students to simply attend school in a green building. Several years ago when their new building was in the planning stages, students rallied around the idea of building a green school that would qualify for LEED certification. This was a valuable learning process, and he now wants to see each successive class actively involved in the school’s operations so that they have a stake in what’s happening there.

  • Involve the Community. When Cate Arnold, a history teacher from Boston Latin School, arranged an initial meeting for the school’s environmental club, 90 students showed up and she realized she was going to need some help! Several parent volunteers jumped in to assist and, as Arnold puts it, “We formed committees and just got stuff done.” One committee took on the task of selling compact fluorescent light bulbs. The fundraiser quickly brought in over $5,000, which paid for the group’s first Climate Summit—and launched the school’s eco-work in a big way.

Vicki Sando of PS41 in New York City agrees that parents and other local supporters are a tremendous asset. She encourages schools to reach out to families and community members, empowering individuals to take on a specific topic they care about and help lead the school’s efforts in that area.

In addition to facilitating the sharing of on-the-ground experience, a green schools program also helps to put your efforts in context. It joins students with a larger movement and amplifies the impact of their accomplishments. Says Arnold, “It’s great that our work is recognized and supported, and that we have clearly identified goals to work towards that are outlined by the program. Our students are gaining incredible skills in leadership, project management, and public speaking. I also think they find it really engaging and meaningful to put their efforts into something that is actually making a real difference for the better in this world.”

 

Green School Programs

AUSTRALIA

Australian Sustainable Schools Initiative, www.environment.gov.au/education/aussi, (affiliated programs in all 8 states and territories)

UNITED KINGDOM

Eco-Schools, www.eco-schools.org.uk (awards, competitions)

CANADA

National: Green Schools Canada, c/o SEEDS Fdtn, http://greenschools.ca, (recognition)

BC: Green Schools Education Programs, www.bced.gov.bc.ca/greenschools, (web portal)

QC:  Etablissement Vert Brundtland, www.evb.csq.qc.net (training, networking, recognition)

ON: Ontario Eco-Schools, www.ontarioecoschools.org, (certification, training, curriculum guides)

NB: Green School portal, www.nbed.nb.ca,

UNITED STATES

National: Eco-Schools USA, c/o National Wildlife Federation, www.nwf.org/Global-Warming/School-Solutions.aspx, (certification, awards),

Green Charter Schools Network, www.greencharterschools.org (conference)

Green Schoolyard Network, http://greenschoolyardnetwork.org

GA: Georgia Green & Healthy Schools Program, www.greenandhealthy.org.

KS: Kansas Green Schools Program, www.kansasgreenschools.org, (grant funding; annual conference)

KY: Kentucky’s Green and Healthy Schools program, http://www.greenschools.ky.gov  (recognition, grants)

OR:  Oregon Green Schools,  www.oregongreenschools.org, (conference)

Sustainable Oregon Schools Initiative, http://sustainableschools.org,

MA: Green Schools, www.projectgreenschools.org,

MD: Maryland Green Schools/Centers,  www.maeoe.org/greenschools, (certification, trainings)

MN: Minnesota Green Schools Network, www.mncharterschools.org

TN: TP3 Green Schools Program, 800-734-3619

VA: Virginia Naturally Schools, www.dgif.virginia.gov/education/school-recognition,

(recognition program)

WA:  Washington Green Schools, www.wagreenschools.org, (certification, training)

WI: Green and Healthy Schools Program, www.dnr.state.wi.us/org/caer/ce/greenschools, (web-based, awards)

Wisconsin Green Schools Network, www.wicharterschools.org

46 OTHER COUNTRIES

Eco-Schools www.eco-schools.org

Resources

Eco-Schools USA www.eco-schoolsusa.org

Eco-Schools International www.eco-schools.org

PS41’s GELL project www.ps41.org/ps41/the-gell-project/

Boston Latin School Youth CAN  www.blsyouthcan.org

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Kate Hofmann is a writer and editor for the National Wildlife Federation’s Eco-Schools USA program and Ranger Rick magazine and lives in Traverse City, Michigan.